All posts by Eric Atkins

The North Alabama Kayak Anglers are hosting their “River Stop” fishing tournament this weekend. Anglers can fish any small flowing body of water in North Alabama. Creek and small rivers are the targeted eligible body of water for this event. For a boundary map and rules for this event, check out the NAKA Facebook Event page for this event. Oh, it is also a qualifier event for the River Bassin’ Tournament Trail.

North Alabama’s new Heroes on the Water chapter is already positively impacting the lives of service veterans and others. The upstart club is hosting another event on August 5th at the Town Creek Fishing Center near the Guntersville State Park. The last event saw near 40 people and dozens of kayaks from 8 or 9 different manufacturers. This is a great time to relax and try out other people’s boats while supporting a good cause. Details about the event can be found on the HOW NA Facebook page.

Courtesy: Bayou La Batre Kayak Classic

The annual Bayou La Batre Kayak Classic is on August 5. This is a big laid back family-friendly event and all around good time. Check out their website for pictures of past events and details about what is going on this year.

Here’s an outlook of other events happening with Alabama kayak fishing clubs in the coming weeks.

There were four kayak fishing events in Alabama on May 6th, 2017. Let’s break them down:

44 anglers attended the Coosa Riverkeeper’s Coosa Canoe & Kayak Fishing Tournament (CCKFT) on Lake Neely Henry making it the largest kayak fishing event in Alabama this past weekend. A new “Angler of the Year” was crowned and the second longest bass in CCKFT tournament history was caught.
Robbey Stanford, CCKFT Neely Henry 2017 winner. Photo: Coosa Riverkeepers

Robbey Stanford won the Neely Henry stage with a big 57.5-inch three-fish stringer. His large stringer was anchored by a 20.5-inch spotted bass and takes home $500 for his effort. Brian Wilkes finished second with a very respectable 56-inch stringer.

Calloway’s giant fish. Photo: Coosa Riverkeepers/Calloway

A 23-inch long largemouth bass was caught by Brandon Calloway making it the second longest fish in CCKFT history. Unfortunately, Calloway could not cull the 13.5” fish on his stringer and he finished in 5th place 4-inches behind the winner Stanford.

Nine anglers had stringers longer than 50-inches. For complete results, see this Facebook post.

Lance Coley, 2017 CCKFT Angler of the Year. Photo: Coosa Riverkeepers

On the year, Lance Coley’s consistent presence atop the season’s leaderboard landed him the 2017 Big Will’s Angler of the Year award for the CCKFT series. Coley scored a 159.75” cumulative stringer on the year and won a 2017 Jackson Kayak Coosa for his outstanding fishing this season. Last year’s CCKFT Angler of the Year, Jared Atwell finished 2nd in this year’s AOTY race and was 11.5” inches out of first place.

Jack Freeman, CCKFT Best Youth. Photo: Coosa Riverkeepers

The Best Youth Angler in the CCKFT series this year was Jack Freeman, a very respectable angler no matter what his age is. The Best Female Angler this season was Kristen Woods.

Kristen Woods, CCKFT Best Female AOTY. Photo: Coosa Riverkeeper

For more information about this year’s best anglers and the AOTY race, see this post.

Due to their terrific performance on the year, ten CCKFT anglers have qualified for the “Championship Division” of the Alabama Classic, an end-of-the-year kayak fishing celebration hosted by the bass fishing clubs of Alabama. CCKFT will be sending the following anglers to the “Championship Division” of the Alabama Classic:

CCKFT Qualifiers for the Championship Division of the Alabama Classic. Photo: Coosa Riverkeepers

These anglers have earned a shot of the title of “State Champ”. Others not qualifying for the “Championship Division” are welcome to enter into the “Open Division” and to try to win prizes there as well. See the CCKFT website for more information.

41 anglers attended the Kayak Bass Fishing stop on Lake Jordan this past weekend. Georgia’s Mitchell White scored an 87-inch 5-fish stringer and won $2,000. Alabama’s top finisher was Jake Garner with an 82” 4th place finish. Twenty total Alabama anglers participated in the event.
Results from the KBF event can be found here.

The Tennessee Valley Kayak Anglers held their fifth event of the year, this time in Alabama on Upper Lake Guntersville from the BB Comber Bridge to Stevenson. 26 anglers battled tough fishing conditions and struggled to put together a three fish stringer. However, Robert Barnett managed to trick a 21” largemouth into biting earning him the longest fish of the event.
Tennessee Valley Kayak Anglers Lake Guntersville. Photo: TVKA

Seth Lassitter won the tournament with a 49.75” 3-fish stringer. The top 5 finishers were:

Ambassador Club, the YakTribe, held an impromptu gathering in Gulf Shores over the weekend. A dozen like-minded kayakers showed up to fish together and socialize along the bays of Gulf Shores.
YakTribe members in Gulf Shores, AL. Photo credit: YakTribeGulf Shores yakkin. Photo: Xavier Raymond

If you are looking for a lifestyle club, check them out at yaktribe.com.

22 anglers showed up to fish the Wednesday night tournament held by the Coosa River Kayak Anglers. Fred Minyard took first place with a 32-inch two fish stringer.

Wednesday evening anglers. Photo: Robby Cook

The Coosa River Kayak Anglers seem to have great turnouts during their evening quick events with their attendance rivaling many weekend tournaments. In fact, most of the CRKA events will be evening tournaments held during the weekday.

Full results from last night’s event can be found here. This event factors into the CRKA Angler of the Year race. Here are the latest standings according to CRKA.

There will be plenty of kayak fishing action in Alabama this weekend as several clubs are hosting tournament events.

New to our calendar is a YakTribe meetup in Orange Beach. YakTribe is a group of laid back kayak anglers, kind of like some of the clubs in our state. They are looking to hold a meetup with other kayak anglers this weekend in Orange Beach. Info. Details on their Instagram.

The Coosa Canoe and Kayak Fishing Tournament event is one of the longest running and most consistent tournament series in Alabama. Its laid back style makes it approachable for anyone in the family. They even have a flyfishing division. Their final regular season stop is this weekend on the Neely Henry System and this event is designed to promote a great cause. Details.

The Tennessee Valley Kayak Anglers roll into north Alabama and will be fishing on upper Guntersville. TVKA is a regional club and they fish most of their events in the middle Tennessee area. This tournament will be based out of Stevenson, AL. Details.

The Chattahoochee Kayak Anglers are another out-of-state club hosting an event in extreme eastern Alabama near Valley, AL and West Point, GA. CKA will be fishing the Chattahoochee River were on one side of the river you are in Alabama and the other you are in Georgia. Details.

Kayak Bass Fishing, a national competitive bass fishing trail, will hold an event on the Coosa River. Details.

“Throwdowns” are slang for a quick kayak tournament. They are usually extremely laid back and low stakes. They are usually planned a week or two before the actual day of the event by a club member just looking to get together with some friends to fish. Someone will pop into a forum as say “Hey, anyone want to have a throwdown next week at Ditto Landing?”

It is a good way to fish along side someone on some new water. Rarely do more than 20 anglers fish these events but $100 or $200 can be won depending on the location and attendance.

Here’s video a look back to April 24th, 2015 when Corey Galloway took home some money after fishing a Throwdown with anglers in Gadsden.

Alabama is full of kayak fishing action in April. Each week in April you will have an opportunity to participate in a kayak fishing event in Alabama. Eight different clubs, to include a national trail, will be holding events throughout the month.

This weekend the Iron City Kayak Anglers hold their first tournament of the year on the Black Warrior River.

The North Alabama Kayak Anglers are holding a demo day in Scottsboro this weekend as well. You’ll be able to take a wide range of kayaks for test drives on the flat water around Jackson County Park. NAKA is also host a “Major League Fishing” style event that day. More info here.

The national Kayak Bass Series trail visits Lake Eufaula on April 8th. It is the first national event held on that body of water.

The North Alabama Kayak Anglers held their first event of the year on Saturday. 70 anglers braved the persistent breeze, whitecaps, and the threat of strong afternoon storms on a mild weather day on Lake Guntersville. Many anglers had spent the night camping out at Goosepond Colony in Scottsboro, AL, the site of the early Saturday morning Captain’s Meeting.

Jason Lack won the Guntersville tournament with a 57.25-inch three-fish stringer. He won $675 for his first place finish. His big stringer was anchored by a 21.75-inch largemouth bass which won him the tournament’s “biggest bass” pot and a bonus $350. Lack won $1,025 on the day. His winning stringer:

Of note, big congrats to NAKA members Lisa and Will Green yesterday. Will was on the water fishing this tournament when he got the call from his wife that she was going into labor. They have since had a healthy baby girl.

NAKA is hosting an online “biggest bass” tournament throughout the month of April. Their next day tournament is at Smith Lake on May 20th. NAKA is also hosting a demo day and tackle swap on April 1 at Jackson County Park in Scottsboro, Alabama.

The Top 10 NAKA anglers in the NAKA Angler of the Year race will qualify for the Alabama Classic later this year in Wetumpka.

This raw drone footage shot from a flight by Jameson Redding gives you a look at what it was like when the North Alabama Kayak Anglers launched at their first event of the year in 2015 at Mud Creek BBQ.

The NAKA season starts in a little over a week from now on March 25th on Lake Guntersville. Who’s ready?

I remember making the drive from South Huntsville to Hollywood and passing dozens of kayak anglers loaded up, stopped at gas stations, and pulling off onto US Highway 72. As a tournament director, it was an exciting sight knowing that anglers were coming from so many different areas of Alabama to fish and that the event would be well attended. That day, we had 60 anglers at our event making it the largest kayak bass fishing tournament in Alabama to date. NAKA would break that record in 2016 with 89 anglers at their Open event.